The Ottawa Senators announced today that Curtis Hunt will take over as head coach of the Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League. Binghamton’s bench boss, Cory Clouston, was named Ottawa Senators head coach on Monday, Feb. 2. Hunt becomes the fourth head coach in B-Sens franchise history.

Hunt, 42, was named assistant coach of the Ottawa Senators on July 11, 2008. He was offered the B-Sens coaching spot following Ottawa’s coaching change. He is joined by current B-Sens assistant coach, Mike Busniuk.

Hunt spent the previous four seasons as head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats, posting a 132-127-11-18 mark and finishing above .500 in three of his four seasons. His team had a 44-22-6 regular-season record in 2007-08, finishing first in the WHL’s Eastern Conference for the first time since 1997-98.

Prior to joining Regina, he spent three seasons as the head coach of the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors, where he led the team to its first 40-win season and was named runner-up for the WHL coach of the year in 2003-04. Hunt began his career as an assistant with the International Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, where he coached for four years.

Hunt won gold medals as the assistant coach of the Canadian team at the world junior championships in 2006 and 2007. He also served as an assistant coach for Canada’s gold-medal national under-18 team at the 2005 Junior World Cup in Slovakia/Czech Republic, the Canadian silver medalists at the 2005 IIHF world under-18 championship in the Czech Republic and Canada’s National under-18 summer team at the 2003 Junior World Cup in the Czech Republic.

Hunt was drafted in the ninth round, 172nd overall, by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1985 NHL entry draft. In nine professional seasons, the defenseman recorded 31 goals and 142 assists for 173 points in 527 career games between the IHL and the AHL.

The B-Sens host the San Antonio Rampage tonight at 7:05 p.m. Good seats remain for this contest. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com, by calling ticket master at 722-7272, or at the Arena box office inside the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.